Patrick Dempsey Will be Racing in the Rain

Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” the best-selling Garth Stein novel. Patrick Dempsey (“Grey’s Anatomy”), who is a race car driver and owns Dempsey Racing, is attached to star.

Variety says the book is driven by the reminiscences of Enzo, a family dog with a near-human soul and a philosopher’s mind, who evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, the race-car driver Denny Swift.

Neal Moritz will produce with Dempsey and Joanie Burstein. Starbucks Entertainment will be executive producer, its involvement coming after the book was chosen as a Starbucks spring/summer book selection when it was published in 2008.